Michigan

A Fuqra/MOA member from Ohio named William Cain killed Dr. Mozaffar Ahmad, a leader of the Ahmadiyya sect, on August 3, 1983 in Canton, Michigan. Cain then died while carrying out a firebombing of the Ahmadiyya Center in Detroit, as did his co-conspirator Calvin Jones.[1]

Fuqra is also believed to be responsible for firebombing a Hare Krishna temple in Denver on August 1, 1984.[2] The attack caused $150,000 in damage and is suspected of being the handiwork of James D. Williams and Edward Flinton, key members of the Colorado branch of Fuqra.

MOA’s camp in Coldwater remains in use and a significant presence of members exists in the areas of Detroit and Pontiac. The camp is sometimes referred to as “Mian Mir,” named after a famous Sufi Islamic leader. Sheikh Gilani, the radical leader of Fuqra, resides in an area of Lahore, Pakistan that is also named Mian Mir in his honor.

1991 “Festival of Lights” Bomb Plot in Toronto

In October 1991, authorities raided a MOA safe house in Pontiac that was linked to a foiled MOA plot in Canada.[3]

The authorities caught five MOA members crossing into New York from Canada as they prepared terrorist attacks targeting the Indian Centre Cinema and Vishnu Hindu temple in Richmond Hill, Toronto, killing up to 4,500 people during the Hindu Festival of Lights event.[4] One of those convicted is Tyrone Cole, also known as Barry Adams, who now resides in Trinidad and is the father of MOA’s chief executive, Hussein Adams.

Recruiting for Violent Jihad

A secret Fuqra videotape from the early 1990s shows Sheikh Gilani advertising Fuqra’s guerilla warfare training in preparation for waging violent jihad. He tells viewers not to make any copies of the tape because it could be “very bad” if the enemies of Islam find it. He tells viewers interested in taking “one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” to contact one of his International Quranic Open University Offices, mentioning one in Michigan. The film shows Gilani’s followers receiving guerilla warfare training in Pakistan.[5]

Guerilla Training

A December 2010 FBI counter-terrorism report said that “the Muslims of the Americas terrorist organization” has a “jamaat” (private commune) in Michigan.

The documents confirmed that MOA is an alternative name for Jamaat ul-Fuqra and described the group as “armed and dangerous,” urging personnel to “use extreme caution when dealing with confirmed members or individuals who are believed to be associated with this group.”

Senior MOA official Muhammad Hasib Abdul-Haqq said in a 2014 deposition that the group has a “village” in Coldwater.[6] A 2004 report funded by the Justice Department identifies Coldwater as having a “training compound” for MOA.[7] A 2001 memo from the Colorado Attorney General states that a Fuqra “covert paramilitary training compound” is in Michigan.[8]

Origins: Highland Park

The Fuqra presence began at a three-story apartment building at 52 Ferris St. in Highland Park. A former member of Fuqra who lived there told the Clarion Project’s Ryan Mauro that it had six apartments on each floor and was occupied entirely by militant black Muslims, some of whom came from Detroit. A 1988 FBI report states that Fuqra had a jamaat (community) in Detroit.

Two sources with Fuqra connections said that Sheikh Gilani married a young girl from this apartment building named Naimah, who was only around 12-13 years old at the time. It was done to combine his community in Pakistan with his African-American community in the United States.[9]

The source said that non-Muslims could not move in and the children were kept in complete isolation from the outside world, with armed guards at the entrance. She described it as a “house of horrors” with rampant sexual and physical abuse and cultish indoctrination including banning cabbage patch dolls and watching The Smurfs because they are Satanic influences. The males trained for a forthcoming war. Those who came back from Pakistan were especially extreme, acting as if they were “hypnotized.”[10]

She recalled the group being led by a man going by the name of Imam Musa and great excitement over the arrival of Sheikh Gilani, who came to recruit fighters for the jihad in Afghanistan. Members were cultishly devoted to him and he and his wife even named their children.

The source recalls that the group suddenly dispersed after the firebombing of a rival religious leader’s home. She said the residents of the building cheered the attack and said that the two Fuqra members who died carrying it out were “martyrs for the cause of Allah.” The rumor amongst the residents was that the CIA had locked the door to the building so they’d die in the fire. Several independent MOA-affiliated sources say that the two terrorists were considered heroes and praised in a song.

She says that members noticed a sedan unexpectedly showed up outside the building after the attack and stayed there. The residents concluded it was the FBI conducting surveillance and soon dispersed. She went to New Orleans, Louisiana.[11]

Mian Mir, Coldwater

Former neighbors of the camp say that they first began noticing a militant African-American Islamist presence in Coldwater around 1980. The residents did not interact much with the surrounding community and were seen openly carrying semi-automatic firearms.

Former and current neighbors recalled being questioned by armed guards if they came too close to the property and frequently hearing gunfire that sounded more like target practice than hunting. Current locals confirm that they continue to hear gunfire coming from the compound, sometimes as part of what sounds to be celebratory events.

Letters from the Colorado branch of Fuqra/MOA from the late 1980s or early 1990s show communication between the Coldwater camp and the MOA’s Quranic Open University in Colorado Springs. The Colorado branch’s sites were raided and top officials prosecuted in 1992 for a range of terrorist and criminal activity.

One seized document shows that the Illinois branch of MOA was overseen by a “jamaat administrator” at the Coldwater camp going by the name of Naib Sulaiman Dawud. The document appears to be from the early 1990s.

MOA-affiliated sources claim that top officials from the Michigan branch, particularly the Coldwater village, have repeatedly gone to Pakistan and met with Sheikh Gilani. They also state that one top Michigan official is involved with covert MOA operations in Venezuela. Intelligence sources say that the Venezuela operation is done in conjunction with the Jamaat al-Muslimeen militant group of Trinidad and involves Tyrone Cole/Barry Adams.

Law enforcement sources say that members of the Coldwater camp are suspected of stealing vehicle registration plates and engaging in identity and retail fraud. MOA-affiliated sources have provided information about gun trafficking across the U.S. that includes the Coldwater camp.

The MOA-affiliated sources state that they do not usually hear much about what is happening at the Coldwater camp. These sources have direct knowledge of it being used to house members who need “special security,” which they suspect means those who committed crimes and/or non-criminal covert activity and need a place to temporarily stay. The sources independently said that there is more frequent movement into and out of the camp than other locations where members tend to settle in.

One source has direct experience in seeing a woman abused and “punished” at the Coldwater camp and other sources provided similar accounts of abuse at this site and others around the country. The sources described horrible punishments and threats for offending the MOA interpretation of Islamic Sharia Law or being disobedient.

The punishments included lashings, separating family members including parents and children, being chained to a pole for up to 45 days with only bread and water each day and being placed into a grave-like spot known as “the box” or “the hole” in complete isolation and darkness. The stories range from the 1990s to only a few years ago.

Crossroads for Peace / International Dawah Initiative

A radio show, charity and blog active in Detroit appears to be associated with the Mian Mir compound. A blog that stopped being updated in December 2009 titled “Crossroads for Peace” asked readers to donate at least one dollar per week to Crossroads for Peace Dawah and to send it to a post office box in Coldwater. It identified the CEO as “Muhammad Hussain Qadri of Mian Mir” and also identified him as a writer for the International Dawah Initiative.

The organization’s website said it had a radio show on Sunday mornings and hoped to begin a cable television program. It said that it provides aid to the homeless in Detroit and feeds 50-200 people every Saturday, resulting in weekly conversions.[12] One posting making the Islamic case against Christianity asked readers to distribute the blog just like they distributed Loose Change, a 9/11 conspiracy theory film. Such conspiracy theories are a central part of MOA propaganda.[13]

Murder of Deputy Erik Telen in California on August 21, 2001

On August 21, 2001, a MOA member who said he had worked for a business in Michigan shot and killed Deputy Erik Telen of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department. The member, Ramadan Adur-Rauf Abdullah, attempted to use the insanity defense and failed. He later said that he lived in Binghamton, N.Y. and was in California to receive Sheikh Gilani’s Quranic Therapy.[14]

Link to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was a featured speaker at MOA’s International Islamophobia Conference in New York in 2015.[15]

The U.S. Justice Department designated CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a CAIR-linked charity that was shut down for financing the Hamas terrorist group. The Justice Department identified CAIR as an “entity” of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a secret body established by the Brotherhood to advance Hamas’ cause.[16]

In another terrorism trial, that of Sabri Benkhala, federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing:

“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”

Walid has expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and accused the West of secretly plotting to undermine the group after it won the presidency. He has also downplayed Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel. He frequently characterizes the FBI and law enforcement as systematically persecuting innocent Muslims and minorities.

He says that the FBI infiltrates mosques with the objective of “basically cultivating and inciting people towards extremism.” He claims that the FBI is “basically manufacturing their own terrorism suspects to give the appearance that they’re actually doing something tangible in the so-called ‘War on Terrorism.’”

Walid was quoted by another CAIR official in 2014 as suggesting that fallen U.S. troops should not be honored on Memorial Day if they died in wars where he sees the U.S. as the aggressor. He also said in 2014 that he was “not getting excited” about Independence Day because the U.S. “has yet to atone for slavery and ethnic cleansing.”[17]

[7] Kane, John and April Wall. “Identifying the Links Between White-Collar Crime and Terrorism,” National White Collar Crime Center, September 2004. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

[8] Memo to National Association of Attorneys General and FBI Denver field office. (2001). Colorado Attorney General’s Office.